April 2020 New Menu Items: Triple Pepperoni Pizza, Family Meals, & More

The April 2020 New Menu Items sing a similar tune as March, with family meals coming strong. They also hit on bold flavors as we move into summer and celebrate Cinco de Mayo. While Coronavirus may be stifling in-restaurant dining, it can’t dampen the creativity and ingenuity of restaurateurs.

So, let’s take a look at what some of our national favorites launched this last month.

April 2020 New Menu Items

Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen

Photo courtesy of texasborderbusiness.com

Cheddar’s doubles down on its Family Meal offerings with a hearty bundle of craveables, each meant to serve a family of four. Choose from Chicken Tenders, Cheeseburgers, Lemon-Pepper Chicken, or House-Smoked Baby Back Ribs paired with two family-sized sides. Dinner just got a whole lot easier.

Fuzzy’s Taco Shop

Photo courtesy of Fuzzy’s Taco Shop (Waxahachie) FaceBook.

Fuzzy’sis getting on the Family Meal train with their Taco Family Meal. It includes a choice of two meats, two sides, chips, queso, salsa, tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, shredded Cheddar cheese, cilantro, feta, garlic sauce and hot sauce. $35.00 for a regular meal serving 4-6 people or $50 for 6-8 people. Great for those larger families and just in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Jet’s Pizza

Photo courtesy of prnewswire.com

Michigan’s cult favorite Jet’s Pizza also has its eye on Cinco de Mayo with the release of their new Mexican Pizza. More than just a taco pizza, this fiesta starter is packed with chorizo, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, black olives, diced tomatoes and spicy jalapeno peppers.

Nathan’s Famous

Photo courtesy of restaurantnews.com

Partnering with Franklin Junction, Nathan’s Famous has launched family meals made just for delivery. These include a hot Dog Meal, a Hand-Dipped Chicken Meal, and a Hot Honey Chicken meal. All include fries and soft drinks, and a couple even come with their famous apple pies!

Papa Murphy’s

Photo courtesy of chewboom.com

The “Take’n Bake” specialists at Papa Murphy’s seem to know what people want, which is pepperoni. So how do they give it to them? With the Triple Pepp Pizza featuring three types of pepperoni: Giant, regular, and mini-cup. It’s a pepperoni party!

Yard House

Photo courtesy of yardhouse.com

Our friends over at Yard House heard about the family meal craze and decided to go all in with six (six!) different family options. These include a Mac & Cheese Meal, Pizza, Salad, and Wings Meal, a Chicken Meal, a Steak or Salmon Meal, a 20/30 count Bone-In or Boneless Chicken Wings Meal (Buffalo, Korean, ancho barbecue or whiskey black pepper), a quart of soup, and/or a full-size Creme Brulee Cheesecake or Bread Pudding with Creme Anglaise. Any one of those is a comfort food feast!

Blaze Pizza & 1000 Degrees Pizza

Photo courtesy of blazepizza.com

Both quick service pizza giants saw the opportunity for at home pizza kits and ran with it. The kits come with dough or crusts, sauces, toppings, and even dusting flour so you can take the freshly baked pizza experience home with you.

Velvet Taco

Photo courtesy of velvettaco.com

Our final addition to the list comes from the taco geniuses over at Velvet Taco. You won’t want to miss out on their new Green Chile Pork Taco. Made with Tomatillo corn stewed pork, avocado, roasted poblano strips, mayonnaise crema, queso fresco, pickled Fresno chiles, buttered basmati cilantro rice, salsa verde and micro cilantro all wrapped up in a fresh corn tortilla. It’s a guaranteed hit!

Adios por Ahora

And happy Cinco de Mayo to all! Be sure to stay on trend and keep your guests coming back for more with fresh ideas and unique takes on classics. Hopefully, we’ll see you in one of our upcoming New Menu Items posts.

Family Meals Over New Items

It like looks family meals are going to describe the trend over the next few (and last few) weeks. With social isolation, stay home orders, and mandatory business closures, restaurants are creatively finding ways to maintain operation. One of these ways, and a very popular one, is with family meals.

Normally around this time of the month we’d deliver the new menu items that have been launched nationally over the past few weeks. But as restaurant foot traffic is at a standstill, innovation is being paused and replaced with accessibility. And what better way to make your restaurant accessible than with family meals for all the parents and kids staying home?

So, instead of new menu items, let’s look at the national restaurants serving up great family meal plans.

Family Meals – March 2020

Cowboy Chicken

Photo courtesy of CowboyChicken.com

The rotisserie chicken specialists at fast casual concept Cowboy Chicken have launched a whole series of awesome family meal options. You can get chicken meals for four or six, all including large sides, whole-wheat rolls, or chips and salsa. Or, you can satisfy your Tex-Mex craving with their Enchiladas Meal which includes nine enchiladas and three large sides.

Buffalo Wild Wings

Photo courtesy of buffalowildwings.com

The fun folks over at BWWs are offering family meals of 10-20 traditional or boneless wings (or 20 of each) complete with a large side of fries. Additionally, they have buy one get one deals for wings on Tuesdays and Thursday. Sounds like a great, fun way to feed a group.

Fogo de Chão

Image courtesy of FogodeChao.com

The meat masters at Fogoare mixing up their normal all-you-can-eat service style with regular and family meals to go. You can find items like dry-aged New York strip, a rack of eight lamb chops, 5 pounds of beef short-rib, and even a cauliflower steak with Parmesan crust. All options include their classic pao de queijo and your choice of sides.

Mendocino Farms

Photo courtesy of DestinationIrvine.com

The whole family craving sandwiches? Check out the Mendocino Farms’ family meal, the Mendo Meal Deal, which offers four salads or sandwiches and two sides for $40.00. Additionally, if you’re short on staples you can purchase a whole loaf of bread to be included with your pickup/delivery. Pretty sweet deal!

Olive Garden

Image courtesy of OliveGarden.com

Don’t worry, you can still get your pasta, plus one more! With the Olive Garden Buy One, Take One special, you get a free pasta choice with the purchase of another pasta. With 10 options, everyone can get something they love. This deal is for car-side pickup only. Don’t forget to order salad and bread sticks!

Taco Cabana

Photo courtesy of TacoCabana.com.

Taco Cabana is not only serving family meal deal specials, but you can also pair them with a beer or margarita (where states allow). They’re offering multiple variations and sizes of fajitas, along with family-sized sides, sopapillas, and chocolate cake. Don’t forget to grab a frozen lime or strawberry margarita and a pack of 12 or 24 tortillas for later.

Food for the Family

It’s great to see restaurants offering meals meant to feed the whole family. It’s a perfect way to support those at home while still being able to serve food. Hopefully this can offer a little peace to those with restless homes full of kids and parents.